Fiona Kelleher: I Am a Little Boat

Fiona Kelleher has carved a particular niche in the traditional music firmament, s a singer with North Cregg and a solo album (My Love Lies) in 2008. Six years on, and Kelleher is drawing on a store of different influences: her three kids. I Am a Little Boat is a fleet-footed, feather-light collection of songs, musings and lullabies for young children. It's a freewheeling project in which Kelleher, without ever patronising her audience, inhabits a world rich in imagination and fantasy. Her disparate reference points range from scat singing to folk and meditative music. In truth, Kelleher sounds more free-spirited on this collection than ever before, playing piano, glockenspiel and body percussion, with spare accompaniment from Caoimhín Vallely. So slight at times that it eludes capture, I Am a Little Boat is a thing of beauty, made richer by the gorgeous design of an accompanying book by Inge Van Doorslaer. fionakelleher.com